Teaching critical literacy from an early age

Not every story is as it appears – especially when corporations and politicians are involved. If children are to think for themselves, we need to teach critical literacy from an early age, says Peter Worley...

Consider these questions:

• Is the Gruffulo real?
• Is Santa real?
• What does the story of ‘the prodigal son’ really mean?
• Is what the bible says true?
• Who were the ‘goodies’ and who were the ‘baddies’ in the Second World War?
• What historical or scientific narratives should be taught to children at school? And how should they be presented?

However you decide to answer these questions, they demand us to think and make judgements. What’s more, they can all be linked to how we tell and interpret stories. Arguably, they are among the most important questions we will ever consider, and so it matters enormously how we teach children to think about and through different narratives.

As Jonathan Douglas of the National Literacy Trust has said, it is not enough to teach literacy, we need also to teach critical literacy. Children need to know – especially in this age of information and misinformation overload – not only how to read, but also how to discern between the good, the bad and the ugly.

In Christian Salmon’s book, Storytelling: Bewitching The Modern Mind, he tells us we live in an age where corporations don’t sell us products or brands, but stories. He advises we need to be critically engaged with the narratives presented to us – whether it be an advert telling us how a chocolate bar manufacturer revitalised a local football club, or the rhetoric surrounding 9/11 (e.g. ‘the axis of evil’). 

Teaching critical literacy

Introducing children to this way of thinking begins with simple questions. For example, “Daddy, it’s not fair that Jack steals the giant’s things and then kills him!” We should allow children to pursue these lines of inquiry to better equip them to tackle the use, and abuse, of stories in their lives. When sharing books in school, it’s possible to tease out these sorts of critical questions from the text, as the following activities and ideas (also explored in my recent publication, Once Upon an If: The Storythinking Handbook) demonstrate.

1. Stop the story

When reading a story to the class, don’t wait until you have finished before asking children questions; the ending may have already told them what to think. Instead, find the crisis point(s) and then stop the story at these critical moments to ask questions. Tension motivates an audience to think and try to solve the dilemma, resolve the narrative or even help the characters.

Try with: Mr Good, by Roger Hargreaves

Stop this story after the children have discovered the people of Badland respond negatively to Mr Good’s altruistic behaviour. Then ask the following questions (not at the same time – see ‘Ask the right questions’ below): Should Mr Good continue to do good in Badland? Should you be good even if everyone else is bad?

2. A sense of urgency

One way to engage an audience with the issues of a story is to produce a sense of ‘nowness’ – that   the story is happening in front of them, in real time. This makes problem solving feel all the more urgent. I sometimes tell stories in the present tense, or in the first person. However, it’s possible to produce a sense of ‘nowness’ even when the story is being told in the past tense and in the third person. Putting down the book and telling the story directly to your audience is the best way to achieve this. It also means you can use resources written for one age group with other ages. I’ve used Knuffle Bunny, written by Mo Willems, with older students, changing my rendition so they can relate to the story (I’ve told it to A level students as an anecdote, for example. They never know I sneaked a nursery picture book into the lesson).

Try with: Frog is a Hero, by Max Velthuijs

When the rains come and the river bursts its banks, Frog, Duck, Pig and Hare are stranded, and it’s Frog who risks his life to save his friends.

This is a simple but effective story that’s easy to learn and poses the question, who is the hero? Make a note of how your class responds to storytelling. How does this compare to their reaction when you read from a book? When are they more engaged by the jokes and drama?

3. Role play

I often find that, when discussing a dilemma, children refuse to bite the bullet – reserving their right to sit on the fence, which results in a rather toothless exercise. However, role play allows you to restore some bite. Invite your audience to imagine they are the character facing the dilemma in question. Use the imagined situation to drive home the existential angst felt by the protagonist, e.g. “I’m afraid that, as captain, you will have to make a decision one way or the other.”

Try with: The Tunnel, by Anthony Brown

Squabbling siblings discover a tunnel. The boy goes through, dismissing his sister’s fears – but does not return. Plucking up courage, the girls decides to crawl through after her brother and discovers a mysterious forest.

Stop the story at the point where the girl has to make a decision about whether or not to go into the tunnel. Do a ‘for and against’ analysis, but then ask the children to imagine they are the girl and have to make the choice, one way or the other.

4. Ask the right questions

I find a good rule of thumb is to begin with concrete questions that remain ‘within the story’, e.g. “Should George tell a lie?” Only later should you move to abstract questions that are ‘outside the story’, e.g. “When, if ever, should you tell a lie?” The important thing here is to remember to return to the story to test these ideas: “So if it’s okay to tell a lie when X (established during the earlier discussion) then should George tell a lie?” By doing this you allow the children to test their personal thoughts, intuitions and remarks against the concrete example of the story.

Try with: Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems

This story is about Trixie, whose toy – Knuffle Bunny – gets left behind on a trip to the launderette. At first her parents struggle to understand the cause of her distress, until her mum eventually pieces things together. Tell the story and then guide children through the following questions, using the process above: Does Trixie talk? What is talking? If talking is X, then does Trixie talk?

5. Question the moral

If the story has a moral then simply invite the audience to interrogate it. Start with the following question: “What do you think the story is trying to teach us?” and follow up with “Do you agree with the story?” You might also ask whether there are circumstances in which the story’s moral is right, and circumstances in which it would be wrong. ’

Try with: The Saddest King, by Chris Wormell
This book is about a land in which the people are relentlessly happy. When a boy breaks the law and cries, he is taken to the king, who he has to convince that it’s all right to be sad.  Ask the class whether they agree with the boy – should you always ‘be how you feel’? At what times should you ‘be how you feel’? And when wouldn’t it be appropriate?

About the author
Peter Worley is the CEO of The Philosophy Foundation and president of SOPHIA – the European foundation for philosophy with children.